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CORRUPTION IN THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

Croatia:

CORRUPTION, CROATIA'S TRAGEDY

Ivica Djikic (AIM Zagreb)

Greek tragedy is based on myth, and Croatian on corruption. That is what
an aphorism says the author of which is a young software entrepreneur
who very often encountered corruptible administration and political
power wielders in his business transactions. According to his words in
the past ten years in this country, he could not get a single major deal
without setting aside a certain percentage for the holders of political
power. These high state officials had the decisive influence on which
enterprise would, for instance, get the job of construction of an
important road or bridge; they decided who could and who could not
privatise an enterprise for an insignificant amount of money, and then
profoundly rob that enterprise, sack the workers and not answer for the
crimes; they, the most prominent Croatian politicians, sold their
silence about crimes for villas on the slopes of Sljeme, for vacations
in fashionable resorts or for cash the amounts of which we shall
probably never know.

When Yugoslavia started to dissolve, new Croatian authorities headed by
Franjo Tudjman undertook a criminal operation of large proportions which
greatly determined the nature of the Croat Democratic Union's (HDZ's)
rule during ten years that followed: several ten owners of driving
licences loaded tons of worthless Yugoslav dinars into trucks and set
out to take them all over the former joint state and exchange them for
foreign currency there. Every owner of a driving licence who was of age
could have participated in this state operation of money laundry, but
maximum loyalty to the regime was also expected from the drivers, and
this loyalty was awarded by a certain percentage of the amount that was
brought back to Zagreb after such plundering raids around Bosnia or
Sandzak.

It is logical that the state which laid its initial economic stability
on criminal foundations continued the construction of its statehood on
these same foundations. The continuation brought the process of
transformation and privatisation and its heroes were Miroslav Kutle,
Luka Rajic, Josip Gucic and Ivica Todoric. Every one of these characters
who sprang up from nowhere in the midst of the business elite had his
own high patron in the political leadership: corrupt ministers,
Tudjman's counselors or generals of Croatian army made it possible for
their favourite tycoons to get hold of highly profitable enterprises,
and in return - although there is sill no relevant evidence - they were
awarded with massive commissions. On the other hand, members of the
political leadership were awarded for interrupting police investigations
against regime entrepreneurs who were intentionally destroying the
economy in Croatia.

Former Croatian president Franjo Tudjman was undoubtedly personally
involved in corruptionist activities: apart from approving of criminal
operations of the authorised state plunderers the like of Miroslav Kutle
who had to pay a certain percentage of each of his looting raids around
Croatian devastated economy into the party cashbox, the late state
leader made his biological descendants perhaps the richest men in this
country. His son Stjepan is the owner of ten odd enterprises who made
enormous profits thanks to business deals with the state; his daughter
Nevenka also became rich by doing business with the state, and there are
court proceedings in which she is indicted for unlawful mediation in
deals contracted with state agencies by Zagreb entrepreneur Igor
Knezevic in which she made about 700 thousand German marks; Tudjman's
grandson Dejan Kosutic is the owner of Kaptol bank, whose business
flourished while HDZ was in power.

'If we compare the corruptness of state administration and the
corruption among high state officials, we must conclude that Croatia
belongs among the countries with the lowest corruption rate of the
administration, but according to the criterion of corruptibility of the
most prominent bearers of political power it is among the first of the
world', said recently in an interview Prof. Dr. Josip Kregar, author of
National Strategy for the Struggle against Corruption, referring to the
latest poll made by Gallup and Institute for the Investigation of
Inter-Regional Crime of the United Nations on corruption in Croatia.
This investigation also shows that the citizens are quite aware of the
corruption that surrounds them: 89 per cent of the pollees from Zagreb
believe that crime is present in their companies, and 77 per cent of the
pollees think that corruption is the greatest obstacle to profitable
business operation of the enterprises they are employed in. In answer to
the question on the involvement of the bearers of power in corruption,
42 per cent of the questioned inhabitants of the Croatian capital
answered that they were convinced that the authorities were corrupt. The
investigation established that bribes were most frequent among
policemen, customs officers and physicians, but only one per cent of the
cases are reported to the authorities in charge.

The trial to the members of Bagaric's gang of criminals from Knezija in
Zagreb shows that the local mafia had a well spread network of
collaborators equally among junior clerks in state administration and
among the most prominent members of Tudjman's regime. The mafia had its
associates in police stations, in various departments of secret services
and on lower levels of state institutions, but their collaborators were
also in the Presidential Palace, holding ministerial posts or in
generals' uniforms. Of course, quite a number of them were positioned in
the judiciary.

'I have been in almost all Croatian prisons, and if necessary I am ready
to testify on corruptness in the prison system on all levels, but also
among lawyers, judges and members of the Amnesty Commission who partook
in bribery and blackmail that resulted in false medical reports, dubious
transfers to milder prisons with less strict security regulations, as
well as illegal pardons of persons sentenced for severest crimes', an
anonymous thirty-six year old said recently in a confession to Globus
weekly, adding that he had spent 200 thousand German marks in prison on
bribes in the past ten years. A testimony on corruption in the judiciary
is the journalists' discovery that Ante Pocrnja, owner of the First
Trade Savings Bank, was bribing for years a whole series of prominent
officials of the judiciary, a judge of the Supreme Court inclusive.

All things considered, the level of corruption among the most prominent
representatives of political authorities has significantly declined
since HDZ is not in power, but without any doubt, corruption is still
very present in the closed circle of the distribution of public offices
and in the closed circle of the members of the ruling political caste
who share privileges. Not even USKOK can fight this phenomenon, no
matter how broad its authority may be. Uprooting of this phenomenon
requires a profound change of the state of mind of power wielders, and
for the time being it is unrealistic to expect that to happen soon.